Italian Vegetable Stew (Ciambotta) Reviews

As a child, food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez regularly enjoyed the hearty stew that her grandmother Mary Pacella prepared as a way to use up surplus produce from the garden. Today, however, Miraglia Eriquez makes it as often as she can during the summer and early fall, using garden produce at its peak.

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I actually give this recipe three forks, but for some reason, the other two won't 'take'. I also found this good but a bit bland and (this is going to sound odd), insubstantial. I cut this recipe in half, given that I was making it just for two. To the half-recipe, I added a can of cannalini (another reviewer mentioned doing this as well), along with a heaping teaspoonful of dried basil, half-teaspoonful of red pepper flakes and a scant teaspoonful of dried oregano. Finally, I added a generous tablespoon of good red wine vinegar. It was great!

Second time I made this recipe. The first time it was good, but not terribly interesting. The second time, I used "Better than Bullion" instead of just water and a dash of red pepper flakes, A few moments before serving I added ground up parmesan cheese rind. Truly delicious. An added bonus is that there are enough leftovers to last several days.

I don't cook for my wife often but I have made it many times exactly as the recipe called for and both my wife and I love it. It seems to be even better the second day and lasts us for most of the week, with freezing half an option. Yes, lots of chopping but that makes it fun. It tastes so fresh. I use a can of San Marzano tomatoes from Italy and this really made a great sauce. The nice thing too is you can experiment whith the ingredients to suit your tastes. Highly recommended and one of favorites!

We thought this was a great recipe, and were completely aware that a VEGETABLE stew would involve CHOPPING vegetables!! Not labour intensive, a pleasant activity that resulted in a wonderful, tasty meal. We added basil and chili flakes, and enjoyed it with good romano cheese on top. A keeper!

the trick is to add salt and pepper and oregano. also my mom taught me to make this soup and we just cut all the veggies and tossed them in a big pot and let cook for a few hours on low. hassle free! also there should be more tomatoey liquid. eat with rock hard italian bread :-D i dont understand the precooking..the potatoes should be big so that they dont break up after cooking long.

Great recipe! I however didn't use the
eggplant and potatoes and I didn't cook
the green beans in a seperate pot. I
added the green beans and let them
simmer with the rest of the stew. I
also added a can of drained white beans
near the end as well as a dash of dried
basil. My family loved it.

I was surprised at how good this was. Simple ingredients that came together very well. did not have green beans, but I did have brussel sprouts and they worked just fine. I'd make this again in a heartbeat!

Thanks for the advice from the other reviewers I had prepared my veggies prior to cooking. My daughter is a vegetarian so I am always looking for new interesting recipes. This recipe helped me used up some vegetables that I had going spare in the fridge. I added large field mushrooms chopped in big pieces. I also added 2 - 3 T of Provence herbs and 2 bay leaves, a splash of balsamic vinegar, as I felt the recipe required a bit more flavour. I served it with a mixture of brown and wild rice. The recipe it self, is nothing special. But it is a good way to use up excess vegetables. The general premise of the recipe I will probably use again incorporating my changes.

Lots of prep work with this one. READ THIS RECIPE CAREFULLY. What helped me is that I have a habit of preparing all my veggies in advance, you will need to do that here if you aren't a fast chopper like me. Also cut the potatoes smaller than they recommend, or boil them longer. I added by veggies two minutes early than the recipe wanted because the veggies were really wilted. I covered the pan, put it on extremely low and let it simmer for another 7 minutes and it was GREAT! A simple soup with all these nice flavors!

I made this three times, trying to make it better each time adding variations to what we found to be a rather bland, unexciting veggie soup. Finally I gave up. Discovered the Escarole, White bean and Garlic soup (also on Epi) and I cannot make it often enough! The latter is easier and orders of magnitude better.